Remember Me
by Clare Hope
Summary: Time travel can often mean meeting people in the wrong order. But for Ianto Jones, a Time Lord, it becomes doubly confusing when he comes across the same person in more than once century, and triply so when that person dies...twice. (AU. Thanks to tumblr users kirklandhummelbonnefoyanderson and mia-zeklos for the idea! Enjoy.) ON HOLD
1. Chapter 1

_You know, you could just let them deal with it themselves this time_ , the man thought to himself, watching a fight between another person and a tall, beastlike creature from afar. _But you know you won't_ , he contradicted himself, and walked casually across the park towards the struggle. The beast seemed to be winning. Picking up a branch from the ground, the man increased his speed slightly. Then, the creature knocked the other person over, biting at their neck, and he burst into a sprint, clubbing it across the back a couple of times.

It sprang up, and leapt at him. Taken slightly by surprise, he struggled for a moment and felt it slash at the side of his head before it was knocked away from him. His eyes were unfocused, but he did see the other person jab something into the creature's neck. It went limp.

The other person stood up. He was a man, fairly tall, who wore a long grey coat. _Military. World War Two? What's a man in the 21st century doing wearing a 1940s era military coat?_ As the man with the coat stared at him for a second, he realized he should say something.

Tossing the branch away, he remarked, "Thanks."

"No, thank you." There was a slight pause, and a strange look came into the anachronistically dressed man's eyes. Recognition, maybe, though why, he couldn't say. Expectation, too. What did he expect him to do? After a second, the man said "And...you are?"

 _Name, name, name. Where am I? Wales, that's right. Need a Welsh name. Last name, too, though-_ "Jones," he answered, thinking fast. _That's a common one. Now first. Welsh._ "Ianto Jones." _That was Welsh enough, right?_

A little smirk came up on the other man's face. A knowing smirk. "Nice to meet you, Jones, Ianto Jones. Captain Jack Harkness." He reached out to shake hands.

"Lucky escape," said the now-called Ianto Jones _(I rather like that, I think I'll keep it for now)_ , looking down at the creature. Oh. Now he recognized it. But what had Captain Jack Harkness injected it with?

"I had it under control."

"You think so?" Now he was really curious. "Looked pretty vicious." Then he remembered that it had bitten Harkness's neck. There was blood on the coat collar. "You're…" Ianto reached out to inspect the wound, but the Captain leaned back just as he saw that there were no bite marks at all. Strange. "You _were_ bleeding."

"Had worse from shaving," Jack Harkness said.

 _Okay, he couldn't be that casual unless he knew something about the creature. Let's test that theory_. "Looked like a Weevil to me."

"I've no idea what you're talking about." The Captain stared at him for another few seconds. What _was_ that look in his eyes? "I'll take it from here," he added, hoisting the Weevil (for that was what the beast was called) onto his shoulders easily. He paused. "Thanks for the assistance." He started walking away.

Even more intrigued now, Ianto replied, "Anytime." _This man doesn't quite belong here any more than I do. His accent isn't Welsh, or any sort of British, it's American. And he has a World War Two coat and calls himself Captain? Something's strange._ "By the way," he called. "Love the coat." He heard a quiet snort of laughter from the man, but no verbal response.

How strange. Ianto felt sure that Jack had recognized him, but he had never met the man before. Not that he could remember, at least. Perhaps it hadn't happened for him, yet. He'd just push it out of mind, forget about it for now. It would eventually make sense. It wasn't the first time he'd met people out of order.

After all, when one is a Time Lord, what can one expect?

* * *

 _Also on my tumblrs demisexual-ianto-jones and clarehope128, this is going to be a very long story. Updates Tuesdays with occasional hiatuses. Hope you enjoy it!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer which I should probably have put on the other chapter, too: I don't own Torchwood or Doctor Who and some dialogue is used directly from both shows._

* * *

 _Ianto Jones. Iaaaanntoo Jones. Ianto Jooooones._ He rolled the name around in his head. He had no idea where it had come from, but he really did like it. And since he didn't have another name (at least, not in this regeneration), maybe he really would keep using it. Never mind that it really only fit in on Earth, in the tiny little country of Wales-it was a nice name.

In previous regenerations, he had gone by a number of different names-mostly masculine, but he had been a female a few times. He tried to recall all of them as he paced around the control room of his TARDIS, just drifting in the Vortex.

Let's see. There was his first body, the one with the Gallifreyan name he had abandoned long ago, who had regenerated into Greg Bishop. And then John Hart-that had been a strange one. After regenerating on Earth in Italy, he had been landed with the name Angelo Colasanto. Estelle Cole, that one was fun and lasted quite a long time. Then another female, but she had never given herself a name. Idris Hopper-far too blond, but also such a short life. That had been the last one-he was still wearing his old style of clothing.

Hmm. No, jeans and a button-down shirt and zip-up sweatshirt were not for him anymore, even if that belt was nice. He wondered if he could remember the way back to the wardrobe room to find some better attire, and wandered off in the general direction he recalled it being in. Per usual, his TARDIS guided him along her corridors by brightening and dimming the lights, and he opened the door to the wardrobe room.

"I think I'll go for something slightly less casual this time," Ianto remarked aloud, and headed straight towards the back right corner of the fairly expansive room filled with rows and rows of hanging items of clothing. After browsing through his options for a few minutes, he decided that a tuxedo was far too fancy and that brownish tweed thing was far too ugly-just a simple suit and vest would be perfect. "I don't even know my colors yet," he said with surprise. "Come to think of it, I haven't really looked at myself much. I've been busy. Is there a mirr-ah, there's one." He positioned himself in front of the mirror, studying his new face intently.

As faces went, it certainly was a nice one. Small nose (it turned up slightly at the end), lovely cheekbones (just like the ones he had when he called himself Greg, actually), and quite pretty grey-blue eyes, if he did say so himself. Also, very satisfactory short-ish, thick, dark brown hair. He had a pale complexion, but he rather liked that, too.

And as for his colors, well, he would probably end up wearing a lot of reds and purples. That was fine. He liked red. Did he still like red?

 _Yes, definitely still like red_ , decided Ianto after selecting his new clothing and putting it on. He had chosen a deep red shirt, dark grey vest and slacks, and a gorgeous red and grey striped tie. Looking back into the mirror, he was quite happy with his new look. Where should he travel next?

Suddenly, a warning light began to flash, and the cloister bell sounded. Ianto Jones raced back to the control room. It took him a far shorter time to return than it had to make his way to the wardrobe, but that was probably just the TARDIS.

"What is it?" he asked, irritated, as he read the scanner. It read nothing out of the ordinary, but the lights continued flashing distractingly. "And would you quit that, I know there's something you want me to look at now, and it's very annoying!" Almost huffily, his TARDIS stopped her lights after a few seconds. "Thank you." He hit a few buttons, and the scanner went from the normal display of numbers and shapes to a blurry, quickly moving jumble of information. His head spun as he tried to decipher it. "Slow down!" he shouted, and it did.

He paled visibly as he figured out what it was trying to say. Backing quickly away from the scanner, he shook his head. "No, no, absolutely not. We are not going there. It's not safe."

A voice inside his head seemed to say, _And since when have you ever cared about safe?_

"Not like this. Stop it. Dangerous is one thing, absolutely insane and suicidal is another." A message popped up on the screen of the scanner. "What the hell?" Ianto squinted at it, trying to make sense of it. It was a sort of distress signal, but not only that-it came with a note attached.

The note read: _Hey, so I know this might not be the best place to meet for a date, but...I kinda need some help. Dunno when you'll get this, but I hope I timed it fairly well. See you soon!_

"Who would possibly send me this? It must be a mistake," he decided. "I'll just, er, send it along to whomever it was intended for." But all the same, he found his hands resting on the lever to follow the distress signal. He snatched his hands away. _No! That is the last place I want to go, no matter who needs my help there-as a matter of fact, how could anyone survive there long enough to send a message?_ "Curiouser and curiouser," he muttered, remembering a quote he had loved from a book he had read a long time ago.

And indeed, his curiosity was enough to make him place his hands back on the lever, and pull it. His TARDIS shuddered, and her engines started wheezing. "I just refueled you in Cardiff!" he shouted at her. "Just go, before I change my mind!" And after a second, the spacetime ship began to really start materializing-in one of the few places that the Time Lords never, ever, (well, very rarely), ventured-the Asylum of the Daleks.

It wasn't really an Asylum-or maybe it was, but it wasn't a building. It was a full planet, a planet teeming to the core with living, insane, horrible, _wrong_ Daleks. Daleks who had gotten so evil, even their own race didn't want to claim them. And the air there was apparently filled with Dalek nanogenes, which would transform almost any living creature who set foot there into a Dalek themselves. Luckily, Time Lords had become immune, but this raised the question-who there could have remained himself (or herself) long enough to send a message out? Because a Dalek certainly wouldn't have.

The TARDIS landed. Ianto looked warily at the door. He wondered what his Chameleon Circuit would have chosen to imitate if it had still worked. Instead, it was stuck on a setting that made it look like 1960s British Police Call Box, and he had never gotten around to fixing it.

Was there anything he could bring with him if he needed to defend himself? Or, no, it would be better to go in hands-free and be able to conceal himself quickly. Alright. Here goes.

Ianto opened the door a crack and peeked out. He leapt back in surprise. They hadn't landed at all! They were floating in space above a bronze looking planet. That must be the Asylum. "Why aren't we down there?" he muttered. He closed the door, going back over to the console. "Going down." He pressed a few buttons. There was a terrible clashing noise, like the grinding of metal. "What the-" Startled, he slammed down a switch and the noise stopped.

He ran back over to the door and looked out again. Below him, a crackling blue energy field sent ripples out around the planet, reverberating from where his TARDIS touched it. "Great, now everyone will know I'm-" The TARDIS gave a huge shudder, and Ianto was thrown backwards onto the ground. The door slammed in front of him of its own accord.

After a minute, the movement stopped. Ianto stood up shakily, his hearts pounding. That had not been normal. Something external had transported his TARDIS somewhere, and probably not for any benign reasons. Then, from outside of the doors, a voice spoke.

" **The! Time! Lord! Will! Exit! The! TARDIS!** " it shrieked.

A thousand thoughts raced through Ianto's mind, but they all came down to one conclusion: _Stay and die, flee and never figure out what's going on here._ Not really a choice at all, then. Ianto opened the TARDIS door and stepped out carefully, slowly. He took in his situation at a glance.

The Daleks had transported him onto their own ship. And it wasn't any old warship, either. Ianto had only heard stories, but he knew without a doubt where he was: the Parliament of the Daleks. The room was almost too big to be called a room. It was round, and extremely tall, and around the edge was a sort of stadium seating. It stretched the entire circumference of the room and nearly up to the ceiling as well. And it was packed completely full of Daleks.

They stared down at Ianto, who suddenly felt very small in the center of the big room with his back to his tiny little box. But as frightened as he was, his overwhelming emotion was curiosity. If he had said anything, though, he worried he would be killed before finding any answers. So he let them speak first.

" **Time! Lord!** " It was a giant white Dalek who was speaking. _Supreme Dalek._

"That would be me," Ianto responded.

" **You have been scanned and confirmed to be a Time Lord!** " the Supreme Dalek continued.

Ianto stayed quiet, but nodded.

" **A competent Time Lord with a working TARDIS! The only Time Lord outside of the Time Lock! You! Will!** "

 _Be exterminated_ , was what Ianto expected to hear.

" **Save! Us!** "

"What?"

" **You! Will! Save! The! Daleks!** " The rest of the Daleks joined in then. " **Save the Daleks! Save the Daleks! Save the Daleks! Save the Daleks!** "

"Well," Ianto whispered to himself. "That certainly is a new one."

" **Save the Daleks! Save the Daleks!** "

"Alright!" shouted Ianto. "I'm listening."

The Daleks continued their chant for another few moments. Then, another Dalek spoke, in a quieter, less harsh tone than the rest. " _ **Enough**_." The Daleks instantly fell silent. Ianto turned around to face whoever had spoken, and his eyes widened. The Dalek who had spoken had no casing, no outer metal armor at all. He was suspended instead in a glass tube full of some sort of liquid, looking for all the world like a horrific, mutated squid in an aquarium. Ianto had never seen the actual Dalek creature out of its shell before. At least, not alive. And suddenly, he could put a name to the individual.

"Dalek Prime Minister," he realized.

" _ **Yes. I. Am. The. Prime. Minister.**_ "

"What do you want me for?" Ianto demanded.

" _ **You will save us.**_ "

"I heard that part. What from?"

" _ **What do you know of the Asylum?**_ "

Ianto narrowed his eyes. "I know what the stories say. It's where you put the ones who are too evil for you to contain: the rogues, the criminals, the ones driven mad by war-well, more mad than they already were. But I don't understand it."

" _ **What do you not understand?**_ "

"You're the Daleks. You would simply kill any who wouldn't follow orders. What would be the benefit for you to let them live?" Ianto almost couldn't believe that he was having a conversation with a Dalek, and he didn't really expect a comprehensive answer.

" _ **It is offensive to us to extinguish such divine hatred.**_ "

Ianto couldn't believe his ears. "Offensive?" he repeated.

" _ **It surprises you that Daleks, too, have a concept of-beauty?**_ " The Dalek Prime Minister looked at him intently.

"Yes, it does," Ianto replied honestly. "But I don't understand. Why am I here?"

" _ **The Asylum has been infiltrated.**_ "

Ianto shook his head. "Still not understanding."

" _ **Something has breached the Asylum forcefield. Something that could give the ones within the power to destroy everything.**_ "

"But, to you, that wouldn't be a bad thing, would it?"

" _ **Everything, Time Lord. Including the Daleks.**_ "

"Oh," Ianto realized. "And you can't have that, can you? But still, why am I here?"

" _ **You will save the Daleks. You will travel to the Asylum and deactivate the forcefield.**_ "

"Can't you do that from up here?"

" _ **No.**_ "

"So you're just going to send me down there to deactivate the forcefield, and...then what? You blow up the planet, with me on it?"

" _ **Yes.**_ "

"Great. Out of curiosity, what did they get ahold of?" asked Ianto.

" _ **We do not know. But it sent a message out. We...intercepted it. It was aimed towards a TARDIS. We knew a Time Lord would not be far behind.**_ "

"Okay." So _that_ was what that message was, though from whom it had been written, he still had no idea. "So…wait, why...why haven't one of you gone down to deactivate it already?" He got no response. "You're all too scared!" he exclaimed. "So you've captured a Time Lord to do the work for you? That's not the Daleks I know and hate." He tried to put on a bold exterior, but his only thoughts were: _If it's too scary for a Dalek down there-a Dalek, who doesn't feel fear and will give its own life in an instant for the survival of its species, which it seems like this instance is...how am I supposed to do it? I really don't want to die. But...if what they're telling the truth and they could destroy everything with the power of the thing they've gotten ahold of? My life is definitely not worth the entire universe, no matter how scared I am._ All of his instincts told him not to work with the Daleks, but reason told him it was the best (and only) option. "All right," he said finally. "How do I get down there? Do you just launch me at it? Or will that not work because of the forcefi-"

The floor opened up underneath him, a great glowing tube of energy propelling him towards the planet, fueled by gravity and something else. Ianto closed his eyes tightly. Wind rushed past his face, and he didn't want to see the planet hurtling closer and closer to him. He did not scream as he fell, but a cry did escape him when he hit the ground.

All of the air was knocked out of his lungs and even with a binary vascular system which allowed for far more efficient breathing than a human's, it took him a moment to regain his breath. He opened his eyes after realizing they were still closed. He didn't know what he expected, but a blindingly bright, snowy mountaintop really was not it.

Ianto stood up carefully. And what, pray tell, was he supposed to do now? He took a step forward. The ground beneath him gave way as he gave a startled shout. He fell another several feet before landing with a thud on the hard floor of an underground corridor.

It was dark at first. Then a few blue lights appeared. Ianto recognized those lights, scrambling to his feet.

" _ **Ex…**_ " Two white lights appeared. " _ **Exxxx…**_ "

Ianto knew what was coming next. He took a step backwards.

" _ **Exxx...term...in...ate!**_ "

Several dozen more metallic voices joined in, creating a cacophony of hatred, harsh white lights appearing with every syllable. " _ **Exterminate! Exterminate!**_ "

A blue bolt of light shot out from one of the Dalek's guns, missing Ianto by an inch. Another one almost seared his head as he dropped to the ground, trying to get out of range. " _ **Exterminate! Emergency! Emergency! Exterminate! Exterminate!**_ "

Ianto turned, running. Then, a voice boomed out from over him through some sort of speaker system. Not a Dalek voice.

"Run! The door at the end! They're waking up but they're slow. Run for it, now!"

Without questioning it, Ianto ran for the door. It was open, but as he came closer, it began dropping. He barely made it in time to slide under, hearing the Dalek's continued cries of " _ **Exterminate!**_ " echoing after him and then cutting off.

"Who was that?" he asked out loud.

"Well, hello, the suit!" the voice returned. It sounded male, with an Earth American accent. Possibly familiar, but he couldn't place it.

"Who are you? Where...where is your voice coming from?" Ianto demanded.

"Oh, pretty far away. And what should I call you?"

"Erm…Ianto."

"Oh, nice. First boy I ever fancied was called Ianto. Well, no. Actually, she was called Nina. But I'm just flirting to keep you cheerful." Ianto could almost hear the wink in the man's tone.

Suddenly, a distant cry of " _ **Exterminate**_!" came ringing out from ahead of Ianto. "Um, anytime you want to start flirting again, that'd be nice," he said nervously.

"Oh, sorry. I can't keep chatting, much as I'd love to. They're coming for _me_ now. Don't worry, I'm used to it, I-" His voice cut off. "Stay quiet or they'll know you're here," he added in a hiss. Ianto didn't say anything. Over the speaker, he heard a crashing of a door.

" _ **Explain. Explain. Explaaaaiin!**_ " chorused at least three or four Daleks.

"Sorry, fellas, not happening."

" _ **You will be exterminated!**_ "

"Uh-huh, I know. We've been through this before, ya know." Ianto could hear both feigned boredom and real dread in the man's voice.

" _ **One more chance. Explain!**_ "

"No."

" _ **Exterminate!**_ " There was a loud buzz and a scream, then silence. From down the corridor, Ianto heard more quiet cries of the same word. The man was obviously dead now. There was nothing Ianto could do for him. Now he had to figure out where to go next, somewhere he could be safe for a minute or two from-

A strained gasp suddenly crackled out over the speaker, followed instantly by " _ **Explain! Explain! Explain!**_ "

To Ianto's shock, the man's voice answered, "My answer remains- _no._ "

" _ **You will be exterminated!**_ "

"Is that not a bit redundant?" asked the man wearily. There was another buzzing noise, and he screamed again. This time, though, the scream did not cut off. It just kept going, raising in volume and pitch, filled with agony. Then the speaker cut out. Ianto stared upwards in shock. What had just happened?

He didn't have time to ponder, though. He had to get out. So he crept along the wall, knowing that he would have to pass by whatever Daleks had been speaking before getting to a possible safety. However, he came to a branch in the corridor. Another passageway led off to the right, a smaller one. As some louder Dalek screeching came from ahead in the left fork, he opted to take the right. It kept getting narrower and darker. Ianto was just about to turn back when a light appeared ahead of him. He kept going, and the light got brighter. The hall opened out into a large room. Six Daleks occupied it. One was spinning in circles. None of them recognized Ianto's presence, and he stared for a second, fascinated. They really had gone completely insane.

He saw another passage leading out of the room, along the curving wall aways. He inched towards it, hoping that the Daleks would remain oblivious. They did, and he entered the other corridor. It had several forks leading off of it.

" _ **In-tru-der**_!"

Ianto jumped. A Dalek was slowly creeping around a corner down one of the forks. Its weapon jerked slightly and let off a tiny buzz. Instinctively, Ianto flinched. Nothing happened. The Dalek kept coming forward. Realizing that its weapon did not work, Ianto let it come, right up until the last second, when he jumped out of the way. The Dalek whirled around faster than Ianto had anticipated. " _ **Exterminate**_!" it squawked.

Ianto had an idea. "Identify me!" he said boldly. "Access your files and identify me."

The Dalek paused, scanning. " _ **You are a Time Lord!**_ "

"Yep, I am. And what are your orders towards Time Lords?"

" _ **They must be destroyed!**_ "

Ianto smiled. "And how are you going to do that? Without your weapon? You're like a coffee machine with no coffee. What's a Dalek if it can't kill?"

" _ **Self-destruct sequence initiated!**_ "

Grinning, Ianto pulled a small device out of his pocket, pointing it at the Dalek.

" _ **Self-destruct cannot be countermanded!**_ "

"Countermand? No, I'm looking for-" Something clicked, and the Dalek began to move backwards. "Reverse!"

" _ **Forwards! Forwards!**_ " shrieked the Dalek, as it backed into the room full of the other "patients." Ianto turned and ran, diving to the floor as the Dalek exploded. Debris flew everywhere.

 _My suit's ruined for sure_ , Ianto thought sadly as he pushed himself up and ran from the aftershocks of the explosion.

"There's a door to your left," a slightly more tired voice than it had been before said.

"You're okay!" exclaimed Ianto in surprise, looking up towards where he assumed the speakers were.

"That's a bit of a relative term. But seriously, there's a door up a little ways and to your left. If you go through it, you'll be safe for a while." He sighed. "I can't talk for long, they're gonna come back. Make the most of this, huh?"

"Alright," Ianto said. He found the door and opened it, going through it into a long, empty corridor. "Can you still hear me?"

"I can hear you and speak to you anywhere on this planet, Ianto."

Ianto frowned. "Where are you? Who are you?"

"Do you really not know me?" He sounded surprised.

"No, although I'm better at recognizing faces than voices." Ianto decided to pause for a little while so he could brush off the dust clinging to his suit. "What exactly did I overhear earlier?"

"The Daleks were trying to figure out how I work. What makes me tick, shall we say. They're desperate to escape and they think I might be able to help them, if they can only figure out how to harness my energy. Which is why the outside Daleks are so scared. And that is why they got you. They used the message I sent out for them to find-"

"That was from you?" Ianto interrupted.

"Who else? Anyway, that's why they wanted you here. And so did I."

"Why are you telling me all of this?"

"Because I trust you," he said simply. "Because I know that you'll figure out some way to stop the Daleks, any of them, from getting their way and hopefully helping me in the process."

"You trust me?"

"Unconditionally."

"But you barely know me."

"On the contrary, you barely know me." There was a pause. When the man spoke again, it was faster and more urgent. "You need to keep moving now. Eventually you're going to come to a room with a teleport type device in the center. You'll figure out what to do. I have to go, they're coming again."

"The Daleks?" asked Ianto.

"Yeah."

"Are they going to hurt you again?"

A pause. "Yes."

"Will they kill you?"

"No, they aren't going to kill me. Not... not completely. They need me too much."

Ianto nodded. "I'll come save you before the planet is destroyed. If what I think is going to happen works."

"Don't worry about me, Ianto Jones. Worry about saving the world and yourself."

"Okay." But Ianto had one more question. "Did I tell you my last name was Jones?" But the man didn't answer. The speaker must have cut out again. Ianto started walking.

Soon, the corridor opened up into a small room. Just like the man had said, there was a teleport pad in the center. Ianto took out his small sonic device (he had never figured out exactly what it was, so he just called it a screwdriver) and scanned it. "Short-range teleport, internal use only, so I can't teleport out of here. But I might be able to boost the signal...Yeah, I could definitely boost the signal enough to transport back to the Dalek ship in orbit, and I could get back to my TARDIS from there," he thought aloud. _But to be honest, from what I've seen, the universe would be a safer place if the Daleks destroyed this planet. But if I rescued that man, they might not have a reason to. And the teleport only seems to have enough power for one boosted trip…_

"Ianto!" the voice called again.

Ianto felt his guilt double. "I'm sorry, I can't..."

The man wasn't angry. "Don't worry about it."

"But I promised I could save you!"

"I don't need saving," insisted the man.

Ianto replied incredulously. "I'm going to get rid of the forcefield and the Daleks are going to blow the whole planet up, you along with it."

"I know. It's fine. Don't worry about it."

Ianto sighed, pointing his sonic upwards. "I'm going to do it now. Thank you for helping me."

"Wait!" Ianto stopped. "Just...one thing."

"I'll try. I owe you that."

The man took a deep breath. "Run. When the forcefield is gone, teleport out as fast as you possibly can. The Daleks fire quickly. Don't hang around, run. Run, you clever boy. And...remember me?" There was a crackle, and the speaker stopped transmitting.

Ianto pressed the button on his sonic and there was a high pitched whine. Far above, the forcefield flickered and disappeared.

The Dalek ship was ready. It was firing almost before Ianto had jumped onto the teleport pad and boosted the signal, sending himself up, up, into the Dalek ship. If his skills at teleporting had been any less, he probably would have been shot down and killed right then. As it were, he appeared inside of his TARDIS, which still stood in the center of the Parliament. He dematerialized, still able to hear the sound of explosions over the whir of his engines. He ran back over to the door, flinging it open in time to see the planet burst open, shooting off pieces into the far depths of space, the oxygen in the atmosphere burning. The Dalek ship was flying away. Ianto watched, but there was nothing else he could do.

He closed the door once again, and entered the Vortex.

* * *

 _Things are happening! Yay! Once again, it's on my tumblr demisexual-ianto-jones as well as here. Another update next Tuesday, where we learn a bit more of Ianto's past. I hope you all like this story, I worked pretty hard on it. Love you all! ~Clare_


	3. Chapter 3

It was time to sleep. Except for his post-regenerative sickness, which was extremely bad this time and had culminated in three days of unconsciousness, he had not slept at all. He wondered if he had a new bedroom, but he decided that before he figured that out, he would choose some more clothes. This suit was effectively ruined. At the least, it needed a good dry-cleaning.

After picking some nice, comfortable flannel pajamas, Ianto went in search of his bedroom. He opened every door along one of the main corridors. There was the library, the swimming pool, the machine room, an old bedroom that wasn't his, an office that looked very Victorian, a room with nothing in it except maps, the med-bay, and the kitchen. Finally, he found what he was looking for. A cosy bedroom was featured behind a simple white door. Its walls were a pale cream, the nightstand and headboard painted the same color. On the double bed, the comforter was dark blue, and there were lots of deep, comfortable looking pillows. There were a couple of warm, gold-tinted lights on the ceiling, which brightened as he stepped in. A dark wooden chest-of-drawers stood in one corner, and bookshelves lined the other wall, already stocked with his favorite books from the library. Ianto pulled out one of the drawers, noting with pleasure that the TARDIS had taken it upon herself to select for him some clothing. There was also a closet for his suits and coats, which was wonderful.

A sudden wave of exhaustion passed over him and he yawned, pushing the drawer back in. He stumbled over to the bed and climbed between the sheets. His head sank down into the soft pillows and he closed his eyes. The lights dimmed. Sleep came quickly, followed by dreams.

 _The building was on fire. There were crashes, screams, nightmarish cries of "Delete!" and "Exterminate!," followed by shrieks of agony and fear. Ianto-no, not Ianto. Idris then. Idris was running. He was looking for someone. "Lisa!"_

 _A familiar voice echoed from above him. It was screaming._

 _"No, no, no, no, no!" Idris shouted. He bolted up the staircase, ignoring the collapsing infrastructure._

 _A cyber conversion unit was there, hidden partially behind a now torn plastic curtain. Lisa's screams were beginning to sound metallic. Idris tore the curtain aside. His Lisa-his beautiful, incredible companion was being turned into a Cyberman right before his eyes. She was in so much pain, he could see it. The conversion was halfway complete, and he stood in shock for a second before starting towards her again._

 _Then the building collapsed. Idris felt the sensation of falling before something hit his head and the world went black._

 _He opened his eyes. He was buried in rubble. "Lisa?" he moaned. His head throbbed, but he pushed the debris and larger wooden slats away from him. Smoke filled the air around him and he could hear people shouting commands and trying to organize rescues and put out the fire._

 _Part of a conversion unit stuck out from underneath some ceiling of the former building. Idris crawled towards it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone rushing towards him._

 _"Are you alright? Come with me, please, we'll get you somewhere safe-"_

 _"No, no, please, help me, she's right there. Lisa! Lisa!" Idris started pulling some of the rubble away from the cold metal. "Lisa!"_

 _"If there's someone in there, we'll get them. Don't worry."_

 _"No, she was being converted, but the process wasn't complete. You don't understand, the power was cut, there's nothing keeping her alive now, I have to get to her, I have to save her, let go of me, no, no!" Idris was sobbing._

 _"You have to come with me. I'm sorry, but there's nothing you can do here. You're injured, let us look after you," the man kept saying. He had a tight grip on Idris's upper arm, making sure he didn't fall over._

 _"You can't! You...you let me go, r-right now, I have to, I have to save her, she...she's all I've got left, and you can't look after me, you don't understand, let go!"_

 _"You're in shock. Come on, everything's going to be fine."_

 _Idris worked up the strength to shove him away and run back over to where he had seen the cyber unit. "Lisa!" he said. He kept digging through the debris until he felt skin. Pulling away a piece of wood, he saw Lisa's hand-dark-skinned, rough. He could not feel a pulse on her wrist and let out a cry. The rescue man was at his side again, gripping his shoulders and pulling him upright. "NO! She's there, she's there, save her please! Help me save her!"_

 _"I can't, I have to get you to safety. This wreckage is extremely unsafe and there still might be those...metal creatures buried somewhere." He sounded like he genuinely wanted to help._

 _Idris tried to calm himself down. There was nothing he could do, there was nothing he could do. He had to focus, or he'd be no use to anyone._

 _"That's better," the rescue man said encouragingly. They were clearing the edge of the wreckage now, and he was leading Idris to the back of an ambulance. "Are you seriously injured?"_

 _"No, I'm...I'm fine, I'm alright," Idris protested. The man sat him down on the edge of the vehicle. It was facing the devastation. Idris changed his mind about being fine when he let out another sob. Suddenly, there was a blanket around his shoulders and the rescue man was offering him meaningless reassurances. Idris forced the tears back, reminding himself that it was unnecessary._

 _"What's your name?" the man asked him._

 _"Uh, Idris."_

 _"Well, Idris, I'm John." John smiled at him. His hair was brown, and it sort of stuck up all over, and he had long, neat sideburns. He was exceptionally thin, with a friendly, expressive face, and he talked pretty fast. "John Smith. Is there anyone you need to call, to tell them that you're alright?"_

 _"No, no. It was just Lisa. We weren't even supposed to be here today, it was a mistake. And I couldn't even help, I couldn't do anything…" Idris found himself babbling to the man._

 _"It's alright, Idris, you did everything you could. I have to go back and help some more people now, you just stay here."_

 _Idris stood up. "No, let me come with you. I have to help."_

 _John Smith pushed him back down. "You're staying right here. Rose!" he called over his shoulder towards a young woman talking to another rescue person a short distance away._

 _"Yeah?" she called, turning her head. She was pretty and blonde, and looked like she could definitely beat someone up if she needed to._

 _"Come over here and sit with Idris for a while."_

 _"Of course. Hi, Idris, I'm Rose Tyler," she told him. John was already walking away. "How are you doing?"_

 _"Better than could possibly be expected. I have to go." He stood up._

 _"Where do you have to go?"_

 _"I have to save Lisa."_

 _Rose looked sad. "Idris, you can't go back in there."_

 _Idris looked over Rose's shoulder. He saw several people uncovering the cyber conversion unit, saw them shouting for more help when they found Lisa. Another few workers ran over, pulling Lisa out of the wreck. She was halfway covered in metal, and was completely limp. Someone was checking her for life signs. Idris held his breath. Rose turned around to look. "Is that her?" she asked._

 _"Yes, that's...that's Lisa," Idris forced out._

 _Rose took his hand and squeezed it gently. "I'm going to go check on her for you, alright? Just stay here for me, can you do that?"_

 _Idris nodded. His head was spinning. Maybe it was better to accept a bit of help for now. Rose dropped his hand and walked away. He saw her wave to the rescue team and call out, asking about Lisa. A quick exchange followed, accompanied by some shakes of the head. Rose came back over to him, her eyes sad. "I'm so sorry, Idris."_

 _"She didn't make it," he mumbled._

 _"No."_

 _He closed his eyes._

And opened them. He was awake again. He knew he would dream about that if he fell asleep. Lisa…He missed her so much. She had been his companion, as well as his lover. He had fallen in love with her while he was undercover, investigating an Earth organization that reputedly fought aliens. She had worked there. Torchwood, it was called. When he had deemed it safe, he told Lisa he was leaving. She asked if she could come with him. Idris had hesitated, but his hearts told him to let her. They'd had such adventures.

But then Torchwood had gotten out of hand. They let both Cybermen and Daleks come through onto Earth, endangering everyone. Idris and Lisa saved the world, but at the cost of her life. Now, Ianto was alone, and wished that he wasn't.

In his three hundred years of time travel, he had made a lot of friends. But most of them were gone now, because he was past the point in their timestream where they were dead. Dead like that person who had helped him at the Asylum. Dead like Lisa. And he was tired of everyone he met dying.

He did have one place he knew he could go. Located in the very heart of Victorian London lived a Silurian, her wife, and a Sontaran. A very odd trio to be sure, but they were kind, and Ianto knew that they would be welcoming of him if he came for a visit. He had been Idris when he had last seen them, and Estelle before then, so they understood regeneration. His new face wouldn't be a problem.

Ianto made up his mind, and got dressed.

* * *

 _Next stop: The Snowmen. It'll be a nice Christmas present for you! Reviews are lovely if you've got the time and inclination. Write me a book report idc. As ever, this story is on my tumblr demisexual-ianto-jones as well as clarehope128. 3 ~Clare_


	4. Chapter 4

There was a knock at the door. Seated in a wicker chair, surrounded by lush vegetation and a climate reminiscent of a tropical rainforest which seemed very out of place in a London December, Madame Vastra looked up from her tea. "Jenny, love, see who that is," the Silurian called.

"Right away, marm," came the prompt reply. Jenny Flint, Vastra's maid and wife, went quickly over to the door and opened it. A man in a suit stood there, framed by falling snow. She didn't recognize him. His nose turned up slightly at the end, and his eyes were blue and wise. "'ello, there, to whom might we owe the pleasure?"

"Jenny, it's me."

"I'm sorry?"

The man smiled. "You know me by the name of Idris, although that's not what I'm called anymore."

Jenny's eyes widened. "Idris?"

Madame Vastra was sweeping down along the hallway. "Idris?" she echoed. Her eyes lit upon the man, and she looked him up and down. "Prove that it is you."

Without saying a word, the man pointed to something across the street. Jenny and Vastra looked. A blue police box stood there, a very familiar one.

Jenny swept him into a hug. "We 'aven't seen you in ages! Wha' on Earth 'appened?"

"Nothing on Earth, Jenny," he replied, returning her embrace.

"And you call yourself something other than Idris now?" Vastra asked.

He released Jenny and clasped Vastra's gloved hand warmly. "I'm Ianto Jones this time around. And listen, I'm Welsh yet again. May I come in? It's freezing out here."

"Of course, of course." They hurried inside and Jenny closed the door behind them, locking out the snow.

Soon, they were warm and comfortable in Vastra's green room. "So, what have you been up to, Master Id…Ianto?"

"Travelling. As always."

Vastra gazed at him. "Alone?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "No. I…travelled with someone for a while."

Jenny, leaning on the back of Vastra's chair, asked "'oo were they?"

"Her name was Lisa." Ianto looked down. "She's dead."

"What 'appened?" Jenny gasped, at the same time that Vastra said, "Oh, I'm sorry, Ianto."

He shook his head and didn't answer. They got the message.

"What brings you to England, 1891, Ianto?" Vastra said quickly, changing the subject.

"No particular reason," he lied. He wasn't about to tell them that he was just lonely.

"Well, you're welcome to stay as long as you like," Jenny told him. "Would you like some tea?"

"I'm alright, thanks."

Madame Vastra gave him a searching look. "You look tired," she observed.

"Do I?" Ianto yawned.

Jenny and Vastra exchanged glances. "Why don't I show you to a room?" asked Jenny.

Ianto followed her down the hallway and up the stairs, admiring the beautiful house as he went. "Where's Strax?" he inquired.

"Oh, off somewhere, 'ow should I know? 'e's always causing trouble somehow, that potato, and 'e's impossible to keep track of."

Laughing, Ianto replied, "But he's behaving?"

"Well enough."

"You know, he's a very odd Sontaran. I'm glad he is, though, or…"

"Or we'd all be murdered in our sleep," Jenny finished. She stopped in front of a closed door. "'ere's a room for you, Master Ianto. It's rather late, so it's 'bout time me and the missus were getting to bed, too. Sleep well!"

"And you." Ianto opened the door and walked in. Jenny closed the door behind him quietly and headed back down the stairs. She heard a heavy sigh from the bedroom and the sound of someone sitting down on the bed, the old springs creaking. I'm glad he came, she thought. I think he needs some company and some rest, and probably time to grieve. Oh, I hope he stays.

And he did stay...sort of. The next day, Jenny went up to Ianto's room, wondering if the Time Lord was still asleep, or if he wanted breakfast. She knocked on the door quietly. "Ianto?" There was no response, so she knocked again. After a few more seconds, she opened the door a crack. "Master Ianto, you awake?"

The bed was empty, and made up neatly. The room was vacant. Jenny frowned. She hadn't seen or heard Ianto walking around the house yet that morning. She rushed downstairs. "Vastra!"

The Silurian stepped out into the hallway. "Yes, what is it, my love?"

"Ianto's gone."

"I'm not surprised, though I will say I'm disappointed. Come, we should make sure that his TARDIS is no longer here before we make assumptions about where he has gone." Vastra strode towards the front door and opened it. A fresh dusting of snow lay on the ground, and the blue police box was still sitting across the street, the white snow coating its roof as well.

"So where's he got to?" Jenny asked. Just then, the TARDIS's door opened, and Ianto stepped out. He locked it, and turned to go back towards Vastra and Jenny's home, looking a bit surprised when he saw the occupants staring at him from the doorway.

"Did I miss something?" he called to them, walking over. His boots crunched into the snow beneath them.

"No, but 'ow'd we miss you leavin' the 'ouse?" demanded Jenny.

"I suppose I must just be very quiet." Ianto paused. "May I speak with you two? I'd like to ask a few favors, for I won't be intruding upon your hospitality much longer."

Forty-Nine Years Previously

"Billy, don't you want to go play with the other boys and girls? They're very nice," a young woman suggested. She was speaking to a small child, who was standing by himself at the edge of a snow filled courtyard building a snowman and ignoring the three other children in her charge.

The boy, whose full name was Bilis, replied, "I don't need anyone else."

Desperately, the young woman turned to the man walking up to her. "He never talks to anyone. He's so alone. It's not right. It's not healthy."

The man responded inaudibly and led the woman back away towards the house. Billy turned to his snowman and began patting some more snow onto its middle.

"I don't want to talk to them," he said out loud. "They're silly."

A deep voice, echoing the boys words, responded. "They're silly." The boy stared around, his eyes settling back on his snowmen. The voice continued from deep within the snowman. "Don't talk to them. They're silly."

Billy turned and started to run away. His snowman was talking to him! But then it spoke again. "Don't need anyone else. I can help you."

The boy stopped abruptly and turned around slowly. "How?" he asked.

Fifty years later

Down one of the older streets in London stood a pub called the Rose and Crown. A young man who worked in the pub opened the door and walked outside, carrying a tray with some tankards on it. There was a snowman stood in the alleyway, a snowman with a mouth carved into the snow and teeth protruding out. He looked at it curiously.

"Did you make this snowman?" he called to another man who was walking by with his face turned downwards and out of sight.

"No." The man pushed past the pub-worker without even raising his eyes.

"Well, who did? It wasn't even there a little while ago."

The man stopped. Keeping his back to the pub-worker, he went back over to the snowman. "Perhaps it's made of snow that's fallen before. Maybe it remembers how to be a snowman, and...built itself."

The pub-worker raised his eyebrows. "Snow, remembering? That's ridiculous."

Unseen to the pub-worker, the man smiled a little bit. "And what's wrong with ridiculous?"

"Nothing. Still talking to you, aren't I?"

The man smiled again, and turned around. "What's your name?" he asked, showing his face for the first time.

"Jack…" His voice trailed off as he saw who he was speaking to.

"Nice name. Jack," replied Ianto. "You should keep that. Goodbye!"

Jack stood in stunned silence as Ianto walked away. Glancing back at the pub for only a second, he followed the Time Lord down the street at a safe distance, but lost sight of him, cursing his luck and wondering if he had just imagined it.

Ianto vaguely thought that the man he had just spoken with looked a little bit familiar, but also didn't care enough to try and place him. He continued walking until he reached his parked carriage and climbed inside, indicating to his driver to take him home. While he was sitting, he pressed a button on the carriage wall, turning on the telephonic communications system he had fitted the carriage with.

"Hello, Ianto," Madame Vastra said. "Haven't heard from you in almost a week, what's happened?"

"Has anything happened recently involving snow?"

"I'm sorry?" the Silurian asked.

"Anything unusual, involving snow? It's just, I was walking and this man, Jack, asked me if I had built the snowman standing in the alleyway. I hadn't, of course, and he told me that it hadn't been there a few seconds ago, which I thought was rather odd."

Madame Vastra hesitated. "Are you sure that he didn't just imagine it? It's strange for you to take notice of such a thing...certainly recently."

Ianto shook his head, even though Vastra couldn't see him. "No, I think he knew exactly what he saw. I think this merits looking into."

"How refreshing to see you taking an interest again. Was he nice?" Vastra asked, amused.

"I only spoke to him," replied Ianto, confused.

"And I'm sure you left your usual impact on him."

"No," Ianto protested. "No impact at all. Those days are over for me, Vastra."

"Of course they are. Well, Jenny and I will look into it for you. Goodbye." She turned the device off.

"I'm not showing an interest. I'm not getting anyone else killed," Ianto said out loud to himself. "Absolutely not."

A small, very thin older man walked down a different alleyway than Ianto had before. Jenny Flint, wearing leather trousers and jacket, stepped out in front of him.

"Well. Doctor Manger, you're out late tonight," she stated.

Vastra stepped out to join her. "Almost makes you wonder what you've been up to. But then, I have often wondered about the activities of Doctor Simeon and his exceptionally secretive Institute."

When the man spoke, it was with a thin, proper voice. "Well, I am honoured this evening. The veiled detective and her fatuous accomplice."

"At your service," Jenny said proudly.

"You realise Doctor Doyle is almost certainly basing his fantastical tales on your own exploits? With a few choice alterations, of course. I doubt the readers of The Strand magazine would accept that the great detective is, in reality a woman." Doctor Manger reached out and lifted Madame Vastra's veil, staring at her scaly face. He dropped the veil without making any comment on it. "And her suspiciously intimate companion."

Vastra glared. "I resent your implication of impropriety. We are married."

Jenny smirked at the old man. "More than can be said for you, eh, dear?"

The Silurian cleared her throat. "Now then. This snow is interesting, don't you think? The ice crystals seem to have a low level telepathic field. Almost as if it can detect and respond to the thoughts and memories of the people around it. Memory snow. Snow that learns."

Doctor Manger, whose first name was Bilis, replied, 'How fascinating."

"I hope it's listening to the right people. It could be a terrible weapon in the wrong hands, don't you think?" continued Vastra.

"I think winter is coming. Such a winter as this world has never known. The last winter of humankind. Do you know why I'm telling you all this?" Manger said abruptly.

"I'm intrigued."

Manger smiled. It was a cold, thin smile. "Because there is not a single thing you can do to stop it."

"Perhaps I can't," agreed Vastra. "But I know a man who can."

"I look forward to meeting him." Manger's eyes flashed, and he pushed his way past Jenny and Vastra, disappearing into the darkness.

"Did you mean Ianto?" asked Jenny. "He won't help us. He never helps anymore, you know that."

"Yes, my dear, I do. So pray for a miracle, because I think we are going to need him."

Jack viewed the snowless landscape. "Look at that," he told the landlord who had just walked out of the building behind him. "It must have thawed overnight."

His landlord, Chilcott, also the owner of The Rose and Crown, ignored Jack's observation and said, "I'm begging you, Jack, I'm on my knees."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Is that a promise?"

Chilcott looked scandalized. "I beg your pardon?"

Everyone is so...Victorian, here, Jack thought, annoyed. "Elsie will be back this afternoon. Besides, I was just helping out. I've got my own work to get back to, you know."

"What work?" demanded Chilcott. "Why won't you ever tell us?"

Jack grinned. "You'd never believe me." He strode away, and climbed into his carriage. He pulled the curtains across the windows and changed into a respectable looking suit. When his carriage stopped and he stepped out, he was the very image of a Victorian English gentleman. And when he spoke to the maid who greeted him outside the large house, it was with a perfect London accent rather than his former American one. "Alice, you look lovely today!"

"The tutor should enter by the back door, unless accompanied by the children," Alice responded, unmoved by his charm.

"And how are the children? Excited about tomorrow?" Jack changed the subject, referring to the upcoming Christmas festivities.

"Of course. And Digby said he missed you every day. Oh, and Captain Latimer wishes to see you," listed Alice, ushering him inside before anyone could see the disgrace of a tutor entering through the front door.

"I'll go to the Captain immediately. Every day?"

Alice smiled. "Twice on Saturdays."

Smiling, Jack said, "That's better." Entering the study, he cleared his throat to let himself be known. "Captain Latimer?"

"Ah, Master Harkness." Latimer stood and turned around. "You're back."

Jack inclined his head. "Just in time for Christmas. I do apologize for my brief absence, family illnesses are so unpredictable. You wanted to see me?"

"Yes, well. You say you've had some training as a psychologist?" Latimer asked.

"A very small amount, but from one learned in the study of human minds. Why?"

"Francesca is having nightmares."

Jack frowned. "Young children often do."

"Every night this week, she says. Won't tell me about them."

"Perhaps," suggested Jack, "if you asked her in the right way, there's no one she'd rather tell."

Latimer sounded almost embarrassed. "Children are not my area of expertise."

A note of annoyance entered into Jack's voice, thinly covered by respect. "They are, however, your children, Captain."

"You have a remarkable amount of wisdom in these matters for one so young."

"I am not quite as young as I appear, Captain Latimer. But I shall see to the children's lessons now." Jack excused himself.

The children in question were currently playing in the garden. As soon as they saw Jack approaching, they ran up to speak to him.

"Master Harkness, you're back!" the oldest, Francesca exclaimed. "I mean...Good morning, Master Harkness." She made sure to use proper English.

Digby, the younger, echoed, "Good morning, Master Harkness."

"Good morning, Francesca, Digby. Isn't Christmas Eve a thrilling day?" Jack smiled. "Now, what have you been up to while I've been away?"

"I did seven drawings!" Digby boasted. "And we saw a dead cow."

Struggling not to laugh, Jack responded, "Well, how exciting, but I did mean how have your lessons been going?"

"Do your secret voice first!" pleaded Digby.

Jack looked around, pretending to make sure nobody was around. He leaned down secretively and whispered, "Hey, you two!" in his natural accent. The children burst into peals of laughter. Switching back to London, Jack added, "And now it's time for your lessons."

The two children only made a little bit of a fuss, and were soon hard at work on Latin for Francesca and times-tables for Digby. Jack let them work for a while and answered all of their questions patiently ("Why does three and seven not make thirty seven?" "Where are the accents on this word, and why does it not mean the same thing as it does in English?") before asking Francesca about her nightmares.

"They're not exactly nightmares," she confided. "Just dreams."

"About our old governess," Digby piped up. "The one who died. She's haunting Frannie from beyond the grave."

Jack nodded. "Did you talk to your father about this?"

"You can't talk about things like that to Daddy," answered Francesca.

"You could try," suggested Jack.

Digby spoke up again. "Do you want to see where she died?" he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he sprang up and ran out of the house and across the garden, so Jack and Francesca had no choice but to follow him. He had led them to a frozen pond. "She fell in there, then it froze. She was in the ice for days and days." He turned to Jack. "I hated her. She was cross all the time. In Frannie's dream, she's still down there, waiting to come back. It was a year ago, almost to the day."

Jack was staring. "Everything else has thawed, but the pond is still frozen," he murmured. A year ago, almost to the day. Then, the words he had heard the man he thought he had known, but clearly hadn't recognized him say echoed in his memory. "Maybe it remembers…" And then he knew that even if the man he had spoken with was not who Jack thought he was, he may have been on to something. "Frannie, this is important," Jack said gently, so as not to worry her. "You dream about her. What do you dream?"

Francesca looked off into the distance. "She's cross with me. She says I've been bad, and...she's going to come out of the pond to punish me."

"When?"

Francesca turned sharply to look at him. "She said she'd come back for Christmas. Tonight."

After Jack had finished with the children's instruction for the day around three o'clock, he set out immediately. He needed to figure some things out. He thought he had seen Ianto Jones the night before-something strange was definitely going on. And where did one go in Victorian London when something strange was going on?

Jack headed over to Paternoster Row. He'd heard stories about the fabled lizard woman who was supposedly the real life Sherlock Holmes, but he had never seen her before. Perhaps now was the time to change that.

He passed by a park...then stopped. Something seemed off. Or not necessarily off, but there was an aching sense of familiarity, something reaching out to him. He turned around. Just above a tree in the park sat a low-hanging cloud. The rest of the sky was also filled with clouds, but none so low to the ground. He went to stand underneath it and looked up. He gasped.

There was a loud knocking at the door. "Jenny, who is that?" Vastra said, irritated. "Is it Ianto? Tell him to come in."

Jenny sauntered over to the door. "'e should know by now that 'e can come in whenever 'e likes, we gave 'im a key." She opened the front door and was greeted by a frantic looking, handsome young man in a nice suit. "And 'oo might you be?" she asked.

"Jack Harkness," he said, hesitating only slightly. "You aren't the lizard woman."

Jenny snorted. "Nah, I'm only her wife."

For a man seemingly out of the late 1800s, Jack was remarkably unphased by that statement. "That's great, but I need to speak to her, or...anyone here who might know Ianto Jones."

Startled, Jenny told him, "Wait 'ere." She turned back down the hallway, calling for someone named Strax to come and lead the gentleman in while she had a word with the missus. Jack stood there, bemused, as a short, wide person who looked rather like a potato came striding out of a room to come get him.

"Do not attempt to escape, or you will be obliterated," it said. Jack raised his eyebrows. It smiled benignly. "May I take your coat?"

"Sit," invited Jenny, gesturing to a seat opposite Madame Vastra in her greenroom. Jack sat. The lizard woman smiled disarmingly at him.

"There are two refreshments in your world the color of red wine," she told him as means of starting the conversation. "This is not red wine."

Jenny cut in quickly. "Madame Vastra will ask you questions. You will confine yourself to single word responses. One word only, do you understand?"

"Why?" Jack asked.

Madame Vastra looked pleased that he had caught on so quickly. "Truth is singular. Lies are words, words, words. You know Ianto Jones, don't you?"

"Yes."

"And does he know you?"

Jack paused for a long time, trying to think of one word that could answer that question. "Maybe," was all he could come up with.

"Were you the Jack that he spoke with yesterday evening regarding a certain inexplicable snowman?" inquired Vastra.

"Yes!"

"And yet you came to our door today. Why?"

"Work."

"What work?"

"Tutor."

"You are a tutor? For what family?"

"Latimer," Jack replied.

Now Vastra looked interested. "The same Latimer family that had a governess drown in their garden pond almost exactly a year ago? Don't answer that, there isn't another Latimer family anywhere near here. Does that work have something to do with why you came here?"

Jack nodded. "Ice," he stated.

"The ice that froze the pond over a year ago."

"Returned," Jack specified.

"When?" asked Vastra, leaning forward in her chair.

"Today."

Vastra changed the subject suddenly. "You recognized Ianto Jones when he spoke with you yesterday night. But he did not recognize you, it seemed. Is there any explanation for this phenomenon that you can give to me?"

Jack opened his mouth to explain, but then shut it.

"One word only," Jenny reminded him.

He nodded, and tried to think. What singular word could explain everything? Then, he knew. The reason he even knew that Ianto was here. "TARDIS," he said.

Vastra gasped. "You have travelled in the TARDIS?" she exclaimed.

Jack nodded furiously. "Future!"

"You're from Ianto's future?" Jenny said curiously. He nodded again.

With a wave of her hand, Vastra cut off Jack's attempt at starting an explanation. "You mustn't tell us anything," she informed him. "Nor Ianto. You must let him believe that you do not know him yet, either."

"Why?"

"Because time is a dangerous thing," stated Vastra. "And you must be careful about what you reveal, or your influence on the past can affect the future in ways you could not possibly imagine."

Nodding once more to show that he understood, Jack changed the subject. "Cloud," he said.

"Ahh, you saw that, did you?" she answered. "Ianto Jones has chosen to remain on that cloud until such time as the human race proves itself worthy of his attention and care. You seem surprised. What is it that you expected of him?"

"Help," said Jack simply.

"Ianto does not help people. I do not care what he might be to you in the future, but right now, he is not your salvation or your protector. Do you understand what I am saying?"

Jack gazed into the Silurian's eyes, knowing exactly what he was going to say next. "Words." He gave a slight smile as her eyes widened.

"Perhaps he was different once. And he may yet change again. He used to be a hero, a saviour of worlds. But he suffered a loss, which hurt him. Now, he prefers isolation to the possibility of pain's return. Kindly choose a word to indicate your understanding of this."

Jack bit his lip. That wasn't the Ianto he knew at all. What loss? When must this have been? In any case... "Man." For that was Ianto's core. He may have been a Time Lord, an alien, with completely non-human biology and mind, but above all else he was a man. A man who loved and lost and yes, hid away from the world when it got to be too much.

Vastra nodded slowly. "We are Ianto Jones' friends. We assist him in his isolation but we do not approve of it. So, a test for you. If you, too, are a friend, give me a message for him. Tell him all about the snow, and what fresh dangers it presents and above all else, explain why he should help you. Ah-" she added as he began to speak. "But do it all in one word."

Ianto sat in the TARDIS, reading a book. Suddenly, a phone rings out. He looked up, irritated, and grabbed it. "Yes? I am trying to read."

"Master Jack, and his concerns about the snow," said Vastra on the other end. "I gave him the one word test."

Raising his eyebrows, Ianto replied, "That must have been pointless. Well, what did he say?"

Vastra responded to his question in an amused but also bewildered tone. "Christmas."

* * *

 _Merry Christmas! I hope you liked this chapter. Reviews and feedback and compliments are always always welcome and appreciated! I'm not positive when the second part of this chapter will be up, but it won't be very long from now. I might take a bit of a New Year's hiatus while I'm getting into this new semester, but it won't be a very long one. I love you!_


	5. Chapter 4 pt 2

Deep within a building called the Institute, a snowman spoke. Only it wasn't a snowman. It was only a collection of ice crystals blowing about in a glass globe, but it spoke with a deep voice. "Danger. Danger," it said.

Bilis Manger turned to it. "Yes? What is wrong?"

"There is danger here. An intelligence. And intelligence beyond anything else in this time and place," it replied.

A servant entered through a door in the corner of the room. "Doctor Manger, sir, there's someone demanding to see you."

Manger glared. "No callers. Not in here. Not ever. Did they leave their name?"

A bit frightened, the servant answered, "Sir...it's Sherlock Holmes."

Bursting into the room behind the servant came an impressive figure wearing a deerstalker hat, walking stick, cape, and holding an unlit pipe, looking for all the world as if Sherlock Holmes had stepped out of The Strand and into real life.

"Oh, what a lovely office!" Ianto Jones exclaimed. "Interesting...globe thing, that is. Now hush! Let me see…" He gazed at the outraged Bilis Manger for a few seconds. "I don't suppose you have an apple tree and a wife with a limp, do you?"

After a few seconds, Manger replied, "No, sir, I most certainly do not."

"Oh. A wife, then?"

"No."

"A bit of a tree then? A bit of a wife? Some apples, at least." Ianto was enjoying himself. "No? Work with me a little."

Finally finding the right words, Manger answered, "I enjoy the Strand magazine as much as the next man, but you and I both are perfectly aware that Sherlock Holmes is a completely fictional character. Get out, sir!"

Ianto frowned. "Got a goldfish named Colin?"

"No!"

"I didn't think so. Now, this is one of your business cards, isn't it?" Ianto held up a small piece of paper.

"Who are you? And what are you doing here?" demanded Manger.

"This." Ianto banged on the glass globe with his walking stick. "Hello, in there! Wake up!"

Affronted, Manger got even more angry. "That is highly valuable equipment, you must step away now."

"We are the Intelligence," the snow said.

Ianto smiled. "Look at the snow, talking. New things are fascinating, aren't they?"

"You are not of this world," answered the snow.

Ianto raised his eyebrows. "Takes one to snow one." He winced at his own horrible pun. "In any case, I'd like to hazard a guess at a multi-nucleate crystalline organism with the ability to mimic and mirror what it finds. Looks like snow. Isn't snow."

"You must leave here now," repeated Manger.

"Be quiet, I'm making deductions." Ianto was really getting into his character now. "It's very exciting. Now, what are you, hmm? A flock of space crystals? A swarm? The snowmen are foot soldiers, mindless predators. But you, you're the clever one." He grinned. "You're Moriarty. So, you turn up on a planet, you generate a telepathic field to learn what you can, and when you've learnt enough, what do you do? You can't conquer the world using snowmen. Snowmen are useless in July. You'll have to be better than that. You'll have to evolve." He thought for a moment, meanwhile pointing his sonic screwdriver surreptitiously at the doors, locking them from afar.

"What was that? Have you locked the doors?" asked Manger.

Ianto ignored him. "You'll need to translate yourself to something more...well, more human. But to do that, you'd need a perfect duplicate of human DNA in ice form. Now where, oh where might you find something like that?"

From outside, the servant from before called, "Sir? The doors seem to be locked."

"Get in here. Quickly!" snapped Manger.

"I'm sure I've got a master key somewhere…" the servant mumbled.

Ianto grabbed a box off the desk, knowing he only had a few more minutes. "Now let's see. If this were a computer...most opened file, most viewed page would be right here." He pulled a piece of newspaper out and smiled triumphantly. "You know, you really should delete your history," he informed the bemused Manger. "Governess, frozen in pond. Got it!"

"Got it, sir!" the servant called cheerily. A key turned in the lock, but Ianto was already climbing out of the French windows into the snow covered evening. When the servant managed to get the door opened, Ianto was gone.

Jack sat in a chair in the nursery of the two children he tutored. He had received word earlier from Captain Latimer asking that he come and watch Francesca and Digby for the evening, as the maid had just had a family emergency (her sister was having a baby) and Latimer had to rush out on some sort of business meeting. Jack didn't mind watching them, and this way he could protect them from whatever was coming tonight if Ianto hadn't already.

"Am I going to have the nightmare tonight?" asked Francesca nervously.

"Definitely not," Jack reassured her.

"How do you know?"

Jack smiled at her. "Because. Someone's coming to help."

Francesca looked at him skeptically. "Is it one of your stories? Your definitely true ones?"

"Hey!" Jack protested. "All of my stories are true!"

Digby countered, "Like how you were born behind the clock face of Big Ben?"

"Accounting for my acute sense of time," Jack teased.

"And how you invented fish?" added Francesca.

"I don't like swimming alone," Jack informed her.

Digby sat down on the floor in front of Jack. Francesca joined him. "So what's this one, then?" he asked.

"There's a man," Jack began, "called Ianto Jones. He lives on top of a cloud in the sky and all he does, every day, is stop children from having bad dreams."

"But I've been having bad dreams!"

Jack thought quickly. "He's been on holiday. But, I am confident now that he has returned to work. As a matter of fact, he's right here. Aren't you, Ianto?"

A candle on the wall flickered suddenly as the door was flung wide open. Jack looked behind him to smile at Ianto as a woman made completely of ice burst into the room. Francesca and Digby screamed and Jack shouted "What the hell is that?" He slipped back into his natural American accent as he leapt to his feet.

"The children have been very naughty!" the ice woman shrieked.

Not taking his eyes off the thing, Jack called, "Get back! Now!" to the children.

"You're doing your other voice!" observed Digby even as he scrambled backwards.

"Yeah, did you notice?" exclaimed Jack.

"Naughty, naughty children," echoed the ice woman.

"Run!" Jack shouted. The three of them ran back towards the play and schoolroom, throwing the door closed behind them. Jack knew that it wouldn't last long, but it was better than nothing.

"What do we do?" wailed Digby as the ice woman began pounding on the door.

Jack thought quickly. "Frannie! Imagine her melting."

"What?" said the girl.

"In your head," Jack ordered. "Melt her!"

Frannie squeezed her eyes shut. "I can't!" she cried.

From behind the door, the ice governess shouted at them. "I'm getting impatient!" The door splintered, and she stepped in. "You have been very naughty!"

"What about the man?" Digby said desperately. "You said the man was here, the cloud man!"

Frustrated, Jack snapped, "Well, he's not, is he?"

"Where's Ianto Jones?" Digby whimpered.

"I don't know!" Jack had his arms thrown out to protect the children from the governess who was slowly inching closer.

Suddenly, a puppet popped up from behind the puppet stage in the corner. "Ianto?" a distinctly Welsh voice said. "Ianto Jones?" The puppet was holding Ianto's sonic screwdriver, which turned on suddenly. After a few seconds of high pitched noise, the ice woman stopped moving and shattered. Jack spun around to face the now grinning Ianto who had just stuck his head up from behind the stage.

But Francesca piped up before Jack had a chance to say anything. "Where'd she go? Will she come back?"

Putting the puppet away, Ianto stepped out into the room. "Don't worry. She's draining through your carpet right now-I installed an anti-freeze setting on this old thing. Oh, and you're very welcome, by the way," he added, looking at Jack.

Jack forced himself not to smile back too much. "I knew you'd come," he said off-handedly.

"No, I don't think you did. I don't do this sort of thing anymore, so the next time you're in trouble, you can't expect me to save you."

Suddenly distracted, Jack looked around the room. "It's colder," he noticed. "The room...the room is getting colder."

There was a bulge in the carpet where the governess had melted. Digby pointed. "She's coming back!" he shrieked.

Terrified, Francesca hid behind Jack. "What's she going to do? Is she going to punish me?"

Ianto stared. "She must have...erm, learned not to melt. And she's not really a governess, you know. She's just a beast. She's going to eat you." After a shocked pause from the children and Jack, Ianto cried, "Run!"

They ran out of the schoolroom, through the nursery, and down the stairs. Captain Latimer was just getting home. "Children! What is the expla-" He saw Ianto. "Who the devil are you?"

"It's okay, I'm just a friend of your tutor's," Ianto tried to explain. The doorbell rang, and Captain Latimer rushed over to open it.

Madame Vastra and Jenny were standing there calmly. "Good evening," Vastra greeted. "I'm a lizard woman from the dawn of time, and this is my wife."

Latimer stumbled backwards. Strax sidled out from behind the two women. "This dwelling is under attack," he informed. "Remain calm, human scum."

Ianto smiled at his reinforcements. "Any questions?" he asked Latimer.

"Er...they're married?" he said faintly.

Ignoring that question, Ianto turned to his friends. "Vastra, what's happening?" he said brusquely.

"The snow that is falling is highly localized, and in this occasion not naturally occurring," stated Vastra.

"It's comin' out of tha' cab parked by the gates," added Jenny.

Strax took this opportunity to chime in his two cents. "Sir, one pulver grenade would blow these snowmen into smithereens."

Ianto frowned at him. "They're snowmen, Strax. They're already smithereens," he pointed out. There was a thumping and screeching from upstairs and Latimer looked upwards, alarmed. "Captain Latimer, that was your previous governess, now a living ice sculpture. I thought you'd want to know that and...Jenny, what have you got?"

Jenny pulled out a small ball of something from her skirts. Throwing it at the base of the stairs, it exploded into a forcefield. "Tha' should hold it," she said.

"Sir, this room." Strax pointed at the study. "One observational window on the line of attack and one defendable entrance."

"Right, everyone in there. Move it!"

Everyone scrambled to get into the study. Vastra lingered next to Ianto for a second. "Nice to see you off your cloud and engaging again," she told him.

"I'm not engaging, I'm under attack," argued Ianto.

Vastra smiled. "You missed this, didn't you?"

Ianto glared. "Shut up." He pulled Vastra into the study with him. "Strax, how long have we got?"

"They're not going to attack. They made no attempt to conceal their arrival. An attack force would never abandon surprise so easily, and they're clearly in a defence formation." Strax gestured to the force of snowmen outside the Latimers' house.

"So, there must be something here they want," muttered Ianto.

"The ice woman?" suggested Jack.

"Exactly," Ianto agreed.

Jenny made a face. "Why's she so important?"

"Because she's a perfect duplication of human DNA in ice crystal form. The ultimate fusion of snow and humanity. To live here, the snow needs to evolve and she's the blueprint. She's what they need to become. When the snow melted last night, did the pond?"

Jack thought. "No."

"Made of living ice, that will never melt. And if we let the snow get a hold of that creature on the stairs, it will learn to make more. It will build an army of them, and…"

"And?" Jenny said.

Ianto just looked at her. "And, it will be the last day of humanity on this planet." There was a collective silence from everyone present. The doorbell rang. "Stay here." He walked out of the study and heard footsteps behind him. Just before he got to the door, he stopped. "I thought I told you to stay there."

"You did," Jack confirmed. "I didn't listen."

"It seems like you do that a lot," observed Ianto.

"Yeah, well," Jack said flirtatiously. "It's why you like me."

"Who says I like you?" protested Ianto.

Without warning, Jack stepped closer and put his hand on the side of Ianto's face, leaning in and kissing him before Ianto could react. He lingered there for a moment before stepping back. "I think you just did."

Reeling slightly, Ianto stuttered, "You kissed _me_!"

"Ah, but you blushed," teased Jack.

Ianto touched his own cheek, which was indeed flushing. "Just...shut up," he said, turning to the door. Jack smirked and Ianto opened the door.

Bilis Manger was standing there. "Release her to us. You have five minutes." Ianto closed the door and turned back to Jack.

"We need to get her out of here but keep her away from them," he told him.

"How?"

Ianto grabbed an umbrella from the stand next to the door. "With this, of course."

Captain Latimer stepped out of the study shakily. "These creatures outside, what are they?" he inquired.

Ianto glanced at him. "If I can get that thing out of here, they're no danger to you. Now, back in the study. You, too, Jack!" Ianto began dashing up the stairs, pointing his sonic screwdriver at the forcefield as he went.

"What are you doing?" Jack exclaimed, following.

"Between you and me," Ianto informed him, "I can't wait to find out." The forcefield disappeared and he dashed past the frozen governess, ducking underneath its arm. Jack did, also, and the forcefield closed up behind the two of them and the ice creature. Running up the stairs, Ianto called back down to where he thought Jack was. "If you stay there and look after everyone, I can-Jack!"

Following Ianto up the stairs and being pursued by the icy woman who was still working out how to move quickly, Jack grinned cheekily. "Ianto!"

"That was stupid!"

"So were you!"

"I'm allowed to be, I'm good at that."

The governess screeched at them. "That's the way to do it!"

"Why does she keep saying that?" Jack asked. They were almost at the top of the stairs.

"It's just random mirroring," Ianto informed him. "We need to get on the roof."

Jack grabbed Ianto's hand and pulled him along the hallway. "This way!"

"No, I'm supposed to do the hand grabbing, it's my thing!" complained Ianto. They found the door to the rooftop. "After you."

They both scrambled up onto the roof. It was cold and windy and slippery. "What's the plan?" demanded Jack.

"Who says I've got a plan?"

Jack gestured to the umbrella. "You took that with us, you must have a plan."

"Maybe I'm just an idiot," offered Ianto.

"No! You're clever, really clever," argued Jack.

"Am I?" Ianto casually reached up into the sky with the umbrella, the low hanging clouds causing the handle to disappear. "So tell me, what do you think my plan is?"

"Oh, I figured it out a while ago, cloud-man," Jack grinned. The governess's shrill cries were getting closer as it started to climb out onto the roof as well.

Ianto smiled. It was a genuine, pleased smile that told he was so proud with how clever he was. "No, you didn't."

"Yeah, I did!"

"Tell me."

"We aren't hiding, because we'd be on the other side of the roof by now. We aren't running, or we'd be climbing down the side of the building. But instead, we're just standing here." Jack smiled. "And I'd bet you anything that when you pull that umbrella down…"

Ianto did so. The umbrella handle had hooked itself onto the lowest rung of a ladder that seemed to just climb up into the sky. "After you," he said again.

"Nuh-uh, after you. I've got something to say to Miss Icy over there."

"Fine." Ianto began to scale the ladder. Jack hopped on behind him, twisting his head around just as the ice woman forced her way up onto the roof. "I understand that you were the previous governess," Jack told her, putting his formal English accent back on, "but I regret to inform you that the position is no longer available. The children don't need you anymore, they only need a tutor!"

Ianto had paused in his ascent to glance back down at Jack. "You done yet?"

"Eyes front, soldier!" teased Jack, scampering up the ladder again.

"My eyes are always front," Ianto muttered, climbing.

Jack's eyes lingered appreciatively on the seat of Ianto's well-fitted trousers. "Mine aren't," he called.

"Stop that!" Ianto reprimanded. Jack laughed, then sobered up.

"She's following us!"

"That's sort of the idea! We have to keep her away from the snow." They increased their pace and soon reached the top of the ladder. It led to a cloud, which Ianto stepped onto with ease. Several feet behind him stood the TARDIS.

"How'd we get so high in that short of time?" Jack asked, stepping up cautiously behind Ianto.

"It's a clever staircase, it's taller on the inside."

Jack had more questions. "And what is it we're standing on?"

"Super dense water vapor," answered Ianto. "It should keep her at bay for a minute or two."

"And how long have you been living in a box on a cloud?" Jack gestured at the TARDIS. "You really do know how to sulk."

"I have not been sulking!" protested Ianto.

Jack raised his eyebrows. "You live in a box."

Ianto smiled. "It isn't really a box." He went over to the TARDIS and opened the door. "Coming?"

 _Pretend you don't know._ "Sure." Jack stepped into the TARDIS behind Ianto. He had no real difficulty pretending awe at the sight of the beautiful console room with pink and orange lighting on the walls and the column-like structures that were so different than how he knew it. "It's…" he breathed.

Ianto thought he knew what Jack was going to say. "Go on, everyone does."

 _He thinks I'm surprised by the size. Of course_. "It's...uh...smaller on the outside," he came up with. That was a bit different than what he had said upon really seeing it for the first time.

Ianto's face betrayed amusement and also surprise. "Actually, that was a first. It's usually the other way…"

"Why are we in here?" interrupted Jack. "We can't be hiding, the door's wide open."

Ianto crossed over to him, holding something in his hand. "I don't know why," he said honestly. "I only know who." He handed Jack a key.

"What's this?"

"This is me giving in."

Jack felt tears spring to his eyes. "I...I'm crying," he observed. "I don't know why I'm crying, but I am."

"I do. Remember this! All of this, right now, because now...everything changes." Ianto started to smile at him but a look of fear passed across Jack's face. "Jack? Are you-?"

Jack stumbled backwards. His foot was being grasped by something, pulling him back through the still open TARDIS door. His arms flailed as he tried to keep his balance and the key dropped to the floor. "Get off me!" he shouted to the ice woman.

Ianto ran after them onto the cloud. "Water vapor doesn't stop ice! I should have realized!"

"Get off!" Jack repeated, frightened now as the governess continued to pull him towards the edge of the cloud.

"Jack!" Ianto reached for Jack's hand but the ice woman was faster and stronger. "Let go of him!" he pleaded. "No! Jack!"

The ice woman and Jack topped backwards off of the cloud, falling down, down, down to the far away ground, Ianto's scream echoing after them.

Inside the study, Vastra, Jenny, Strax and the Latimers heard a huge thump outside. Jenny ran to the window as Vastra exclaimed, "What was that?"

Jenny gasped. "It was Jack!"

Swiftly, Madame Vastra pulled out a small device from her skirts. It had a steampunk-esque look to it, and as she pressed a button, it gave no signal.

Captain Latimer was worried. "Dead God, oh, dear God. Where did he fall from? We have to get him inside."

"Those things will kill you," Vastra warned.

"But he's hurt!" Latimer protested.

"He's dead," said Vastra shortly. Suddenly, the TARDIS noise sounded, and the blue box began to materialize around Jack's limp body.

"What is that?" asked Latimer wildly. "What's happening?"

"He's bringing him in," Vastra told him.

A minute later, Jack was lying on the table in the study, the TARDIS sitting in the corner. Vastra and Ianto were in the TARDIS and Strax stood over Jack, a small, beeping machine in one three-fingered hand. Jack was breathing shallowly now, and Captain Latimer watched incredulously. To Strax, he said, "That green woman said he was dead, how can he be alive now?"

"This technology has capacities and abilities beyond anything your puny human mind could possibly understand." Strax looked up at Latimer and smiled grimly. "Try not to worry."

Inside the TARDIS, Ianto examined the ice fragments that used to be the governess. Vastra stood nearby. "Is the creature still a danger?" she asked. "It could still reform."

"No, not in here," muttered Ianto.

"Then you should be with Master Jack," said Vastra sharply.

"He'll be fine. He has to be."

"Ianto, his injuries were severe," Vastra told him gently. "Strax's equipment will bring him back for a while, but long term-!"

Ianto interrupted her. "It was my fault. I was responsible for him, he followed me! I should have taken better care of him."

"And what," Vastra began, "is the point of blaming yourself?"

"None," Ianto snapped. "Because he is going to live." He grabbed a small box, a souvenir lunchbox, from the ground next to him and stomped out of the TARDIS. His demeanor changed as he handed the box to Jenny and walked over to Jack. "Hey," he said softly.

Jack opened an eye slightly. "Do they all think I'm going to die?"

"Well, I know you're going to live," Ianto told him.

"How?" Jack asked.

"I never know how. I just know..." Ianto placed the key to the TARDIS in Jack's hand. He brushed his lips against the hand as he placed it back on Jack's chest. "...who."

"Are you going to save the world?" Jack asked, not quite joking but not entirely serious either.

"If I do," Ianto offered, "will you come away with me?"

Jack smiled. "Yes."

"Well then. Merry Christmas," said Ianto. Suddenly cheerier, he bounded away to answer Manger at the door. "I have in my hand a piece of the ice lady," Ianto informed Manger, not letting the other man speak. "That is what you want, right? Everything you need to know about making ice people. See you at the office." He slammed the door, heading back into the study. "Vastra, with me." Ianto took the box from Jenny and walked into the TARDIS.

"So, then, Ianto. Saving the world again, are we? Might I ask why?" Vastra looked at him accusingly. "Are you making a bargain with the universe? You'll save the world to let him live?"

"Yes!" Ianto cried. "And don't you think that after everything I have done after all this time, that I am owed this one?"

"I don't think that the universe makes bargains."

Ianto looked at her sadly. "It was my fault," he whispered.

Vastra pursed her lips. "Well, then. Better save the world."

When Bilis Manger walked into the office at the Institute where the great glass globe sat in wait, he was not surprised to see Ianto and Vastra already there. "You promised us something," he spoke. "Do you have it?"

"Your snow has been very quiet since we got here. Which is only to be expected, considering what he is," Ianto told him. He held up the lunchbox. "Do you know what this is, snow?"

"I do not understand those markings," the snow uttered.

"It's a map of the London underground. Key strategic weakness in metropolitan living, if you ask me, but then, I never did like it. It's too messy. Cardiff's more to my liking, note the voice."

"Enough of this," said the snow. "We are powerful, but on this planet we need to learn to take human form."

Ianto pulled out his sonic screwdriver. It began to whir and the snowman's voice went up in pitch dramatically.

"The Governess is our most perfect replication of humanity…" the snow continued.

"What's happening to its voice?" Vastra asked softly.

Ianto smiled wryly. "Just stripping away the disguise."

The snow must have realized what was happening, but it no longer sounded like a threatening, baritone older man. "No! Stop that! Cease, I command you!"

"It sounds like a child!" exclaimed Vastra.

"It is a child," agreed Ianto. "It is Manger as a child. The snow has no voice without him."

"Don't listen to him!" squeaked the snow. "He's ruining everything!"

Ianto looked at Manger, almost sympathetically. "How long has the intelligence been talking to you."

"I was a boy. He was my snowman." Manger looked at the snow in the globe almost reverentially. "He...spoke to me."

"But it didn't really talk, did it? It was just a mirror. It just reflects back everything we think, and feel, and...fear."

Manger said nothing.

"You poured your darkest dreams into a snowman." Ianto began raising his voice. "And look what it's become!"

"I don't understand!" Vastra cried.

"It's only a parasite. It's feeding on the loneliness of a child and the sickness and worship of an old man." Ianto snorted. "Carnivorous snow meets Victorian values, and something...terrible is born."

Manger appeared offended. "What's wrong with Victorian values?" He crossed over to Ianto and grabbed the lunch box.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Ianto said calmly.

"I am always sure," retorted Manger, and opened the box. A small puff of gas escaped it and blew into Manger's face. He swayed, and his eyes unfocused.

"Good, because your whole adult life is about to be erased," Ianto said. "No parasite without a host, and without you, or the governess, it won't have any form."

"What, what's happening?" the snow sounded frightened as Manger collapsed in a heap. "What's happening? What did you do?"

Ianto looked at it. "You've nothing left to mirror. Goodbye."

"What did you, did you…" It's voice slipped away to nothingness as the snow fell, lifeless, to the bottom of the globe. Then without warning, all of the snow lifted back up and began swirling angrily. With a deep voice again, the snow said, "Did you really think it would be that simple?"

Ianto took a step back, fear filling his voice. "That isn't possible. How is that possible?!" He looked at Vastra desperately.

Back at the Latimer house, the snowmen surrounding the estate were suddenly tripling in size. Francesca screamed as she looked out the window in the study. Jenny rushed over to her. "They're growing!" Jenny cried. "The snowmen are growing!"

"But you were just Doctor Manger!" Ianto protested. "How can you still exist, you're...you aren't real, he just dreamed you!"

"Now the dream outlives the dreamer and can never die," proclaimed the snow. Frosty pale, and animated as if a puppet, Manger rose from the ground and the snowman spoke through his mouth. "Now I pull the strings! I've waited so long to occupy human forms. By emptying Doctor Manger, you've made room for me! I fill him now." It knocked Madame Vastra away and grabbed the front of Ianto's coat. Even though Manger was much smaller than Ianto, it seemed to possess unnatural strength. "More than snow, more than Manger. Even this old body is strong in my control!" Ianto cried out as his skin began turning to ice under Manger's touch. He tried to get away, but Manger held on tightly. "You can feel it! The winter-my winter is coming!"

Jack struggled for breath. He knew that he was fading, as much as everyone urged him to hold on. "Captain Latimer," he murmured. He glanced at Francesca and Digby, both trying not to cry as they kept looking between the threatening figures of the giant snowmen outside and at him, lying on the table. "Your children are frightened. Hold them."

"It's not really...my area," protested Latimer.

"It is now," asserted Jack. Outside, there was a crash of thunder. A rushing sound began, the sound of rain falling hard upon the ground and washing away the snow.

Ianto's skin was still frosting over. He fell to his knees. Vastra was struggling to her feet dizzily, but before she had the opportunity to help Ianto, Manger let go. He looked towards the snow globe, which was now filled with meltwater. "What is happening?" he demanded.

"Ianto! The snow, it's all turning to rain! Look!" Vastra exclaimed. Manger turned pale and fell over, the life leaving his body completely. "He's dead!" the Silurian said in shock. "What happened?"

"The snow mirrors," answered Ianto. He stood up painfully. "That's all that it does. And it's found something else to mirror now." Slowly, a dreadful realization came over Ianto. He walked over the window and held out his hand, cupping it to catch the falling rain. "The most critical mass of snow was at the house, Vastra. If something happened there…" Ianto licked the tip of his fingers, tasting the rain. Vastra followed his example.

She looked at him in shock. "It's salty! Salt water rain?"

"It...it isn't rain, it's tears," murmured Ianto. "And what's powerful enough to drown out the snow?" He looked out the window in the direction of the Latimer's house. "A whole family, crying on Christmas Eve."

The TARDIS materialized in the study. Ianto stepped out, followed closely by Vastra. The sobs of Francesca and Digby and the rain lashing on the window were the only other sounds that could be heard. Ianto approached Jack.

Strax took a step back. "There is nothing to be done. He has moments only."

Jack was struggling to focus his eyes on Ianto, who took his hand. "We saved the world, Jack. We did."

"Going back to your cloud now?" Jack teased. His breath caught in his throat and he coughed.

Ianto shook his head. "I can't."

"Why not?" Jack frowned.

"It rained."

Jack laughed softly and coughed again. The light in his eyes was fading quickly. "Something I need to tell you…"

"What is it?"

"You've...got to run. After I go. Run. Run, you clever boy, and…"

Ianto's hearts skipped a beat as Jack finished the sentence.

"...remember me." His eyes closed. The clock struck midnight, and a single tear fell from Ianto's eye. The two children began sobbing afresh.

"It's Christmas Day," Ianto whispered.

"Ianto," Vastra said cautiously. "Did the Intelligence melt with the snow?"

Ianto cleared his throat. "No. It must have learnt how to survive without physical form…But there shouldn't be any present danger. Did he say what I thought he said?" he asked abruptly. "'Run, you clever boy, and remember me'? He did say that, right?"

Captain Latimer nodded. "He did."

Ianto's thoughts were racing. "Captain, what was his full name?"

"Why-Um, Jack Harkness."

His breathing quickening, Ianto stared in disbelief at the dead body. "He was the Weevil man. And the man from the Asylum. I never saw his face that time, but it was the same voice. The exact same voice!"

"Ianto?" asked Jenny.

"The same man. The same man, three times, in three completely separate parts of history and he died two of the times! That's...that's impossible."

Vastra sighed. "Ianto, please. What are you talking about? What is going on?"

"I don't know. But something impossible and I intend to figure out what." Suddenly, Ianto dashed out of the study and to the front door. Vastra and Jenny followed quickly.

"Where are you goin'?" Jenny called.

"To find Jack!"

"Ianto, he's dead!" Vastra tried to remind him, but Ianto was already gone, the door closed behind him.

"Does he not understand what's going on?" inquired Jenny.

"I've no idea...but perhaps the universe makes bargains after all, my dear. Come, let's…"

A sudden, hoarse gasp couple by screams of the two young children could be heard from inside the study. The wives turned and raced back in to find a living, sitting Jack!

The previously deceased man was catching his breath. "Hey, gals," he said. "Bet you weren't expecting that, were you?"

While Vastra and Jenny were frozen in disbelief, Francesca stepped forwards. "You're still alive!" she said.

Jack smiled at her. "Yep. Still alive. I'm fine, look." All of the sudden, both Francesca and Digby flung themselves at him.

"We thought you had died!" the young boy whimpered.

Touched by their concern, Jack hugged them both. "It's okay, I'm fine now. Go back over to your father, there, it's okay."

Strax was staring too. "If you don't mind me asking, boy. How did you come back to life? If I knew, I could harness that power for the glory of the Sontaran empire."

"Sorry, Strax, not gonna happen." Jack looked at Vastra. "Is he gone?"

Vastra blinked. "Yes...yes, Ianto's gone," she answered weakly.

"Good. He can't know yet. He's still got some time left."

Ianto flipped a switch in the TARDIS. The console lit up and the engines started wheezing. "Captain Jack Harkness!" he cried. "Watch me run."

* * *

 _Well, there's another chapter of that! I hope you liked it, although this was the chapter I struggled with writing the most and I'm pretty sure I didn't quite change the dialogue enough to be totally in character...oh, well. Next chapter is much better, I promise. But I don't know exactly when it'll be up...probably in a couple of weeks, and then I'll start posting more regularly. As always, my tumblrs are clarehope128 and demisexual-ianto-jones and you can always find my stories there before they're even posted here. I hope you all had a wonderful December and saw a good end and a good beginning to the year. Reviews are greatly appreciated! I love you all! ~Clare_


	6. Chapter 5

_Is that a phone?_ Ianto wondered incredulously. He looked up from his sketchbook where every page was covered with pencil drawings of the mysterious Jack. The Time Lord stood up from the rock he was sitting on in the middle of the forest as a ringing sound echoed around the medieval forest. _It's 1207,_ he reminded himself as he started walking towards the noise. _There are no phones. No mobiles, no landlines. Maybe some tin cans with bits of string, but other than that, no phones. Phones don't work here. Hello? Anyone there? No, because there are no phones._

And yet, it kept ringing and he kept walking. The sound was getting louder, and Ianto began to realize that it was coming from the same direction as his TARDIS was parked. He stopped abruptly. "That isn't even a real phone," he muttered, and started walking again, faster this time.

The ringing was indeed coming from his TARDIS. And not even the interior phone where he actually ever took calls; no, the exterior phone-box phone was ringing. Ianto opened the small door to the phone compartment slowly, staring at it as if it was going to jump out at him. Ever so carefully, he reached for it, hesitated, then picked it up. He brought it to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Finally!" a young man's voice exclaimed. Ianto froze. "I've been waiting for someone to pick up for nearly an hour. So you can help me with a pterodactyl problem, yeah?"

Speechless, Ianto blinked a couple of times. "It's...it's twelve o' seven," he said at last.

"Oh, I've got half past three. Wait, am I phoning a different time zone?"

"You sort of are." Ianto rubbed the tip of his nose.

"Hang on, will that cost extra? Like a long-distance fee or something?" the young man said worriedly.

"I...I shudder to think," Ianto answered. "Um, where did you get this number?"

"The man in the shop wrote it down."

"What man?"

"I don't know." He sounded irritated. "Just the man in the shop. Hold on-" Away from the phone's microphone, the man called, "What's the password for the phone line thing? You know, the one that gets us the discount for off-world."

A faint other voice shouted back. "R-Y-C-B-A-R-1-2-3!"

"Well how the hell am I supposed to remember that?" grumbled the man. "R-run, you, clever, boy, and...remember...123."

Ianto could hardly breathe. "What did you say?"

The man was hardly listening. "Well, that can't be right, it's telling me I can't even be phoning this number. But...aw, damn, I have to put in the password again." Whispering under his breath, he repeated, "Run you clever boy and remember...123."

"What was that?" Ianto demanded.

"Don't shout! It's just something to remember the password, you know, one word for each letter. I'm good at coming up with those. Ugh, it's still not letting me put it in. Oh well, so, can you come and help with the pterodactyl? It's actually really annoying, and the man in the shop said you could definitely help. Best help line in the universe, was what he said."

"Okay. Well. Yes, I will definitely come to help. Goodbye!" Ianto slammed the phone down into the compartment, gawping at it. "A pterodactyl," he muttered. "What the…"

Having traced the call to a small colony on a peninsula on a small planet in the middle of nowhere in the 51st century, Ianto was thoroughly confused and very curious. He set coordinates and took off.

He had redesigned the interior of the TARDIS recently while trying to locate Jack Harkness, and it was now simpler, more elegant, and fit this regeneration much better than the previous frivolous oranges and pinks. The lighting scheme was greens, blues, and just a hint of the red he was so enamoured with now. Above the center console hung three spinning, silver structures with the names of people he had loved written in circular Gallifreyan, the written language of his people. There were still two levels of controls but the floor was no longer glass, but chrome, and Ianto felt more at home here.

The landing was smooth and uneventful, but Ianto stayed in the TARDIS for longer than was probably necessary. He checked all of the safety features that he normally ignored, just to put off leaving and having to confront the mystery. But he could only stall for so long, and a few minutes later, he was walking out onto a sandy expanse in front of a large, sandstone structure that spiraled up into the sky. It was simple and rough enough to be clearly a work of function rather than aesthetic, but the effect of the pale beige against the bright blue sky was quite beautiful. Ianto had figured out exactly which part of the building the call had come from and even knew which door to knock on, but still, he was nervous as he approached it, introduced himself as a family visitor to get past the watchman standing guard in front of the main entrance, and climbed the extensive and twisting flights of outdoor stairs to the fourth level.

Ianto hesitated before knocking on the door. _What if…_ "No," he said aloud, and knocked.

A few seconds later, someone called from inside. "Yeah, I hear you!" A short while after that, the door opened. "Um, hi."

Ianto's eyes widened. It was him. It was Jack. He looked much younger than either time he had seen him before and he wore loose fitting grey and tan clothes, but it was unquestionably Jack. "Jack Harkness!" Ianto exclaimed.

"Yep, that's me?"

"Captain Jack Harkness!"

"Uh...Just Jack Harkness, dunno where you got Captain from."

"Do you remember me?" Ianto asked eagerly.

Jack just looked confused. "No. Should I? Do I know you?"

"Ianto. No? Ianto Jones." A desperate look was starting to creep into Ianto's eyes. "Don't you know me?"

"Sorry," apologized Jack. Then he swept his gaze up and down Ianto's height. "Although I might like to know you, if you know what I mean."

"But you always knew me before," said Ianto, disappointed. "The Dalek Asylum? Weevil fighting? The living snowmen in Victorian England with the lizard woman and her wife and their potato?"

Jack's eyebrows shot up. "Okay," he said, and closed the door in Ianto's face.

"No! Jack! Wait!" Ianto cried. Cautiously, Jack propped the door open against his foot and stared out at Ianto. "Listen, I just want to talk to you."

"About what?"

 _Who you are and why you keep dying,_ was what Ianto wanted to say. But instead, he answered with, "Anything. Do you live here? Do you travel a lot? Someone else lives here, too, don't they?"

"Right, we just met, and those are personal questions. Save them for the first date, okay?" Jack said, and tried to close the door once again.

"No, Jack, please!" But it was too late. He sighed and went back down the stairs slowly. He was going to have to try a different tactic.

Later that night, he went back the the door and knocked once more. This time, he knew Jack would listen to him.

"Okay, this has to stop," Jack said by way of greeting. "I don't have time for this right now, it's late, and there are kids trying to sleep in here. I don't really care what your problem is, but I know you don't come from around here and you need to leave. If you try to stalk me, I'll have your memory wiped."

Ianto smiled. "So...you're not going to help me capture this pterodactyl, then?"

Jack stared at him. "That was you?"

"On the phone, yeah."

"How did you get here so fast?" Jack asked indredulously. He stepped outside the door and closed it carefully behind him.

"I happened to be able to get to this neighborhood fairly quickly, on my...mobile phone," Ianto replied, gesturing towards the TARDIS parked in clear view on the beach.

"Why do you point at that blue box when you say mobile phone?"

"It is a surprisingly accurate description," Ianto laughed. "Are we going, then?"

"Pterodactyl hunting with an attractive man in a tight suit? I wouldn't stay behind for anything," said Jack flirtatiously.

Outside of an abandoned warehouse a mile or so away from the main part of the colony, Ianto prepared a large syringe full of liquid. Jack was eyeing it, confused. "What, you don't carry around general anesthesia on a regular basis?" teased Ianto.

"Not usually, and certainly not for dinosaurs."

"Ah, now, that's a common mistake," Ianto corrected. "It isn't actually a dinosaur, it's a pteranodon. And technically, pterodactyls don't exist. That was just a name to describe any pre-historic flying reptilian-like creature made up by some early scientists."

"Everything's just a name made up by scientists," Jack pointed out. "Ready?"

"Yeah." Ianto opened the door to the warehouse and stuck his head inside. A shriek rang out and a large, flying creature swooped towards the door. "Nope!" he shouted, and slammed the door closed again.

Jack was laughing. "See why I haven't done anything about it?"

"Yeah, well. It seems aggressive."

"It's very excitable," agreed Jack.

"Must be your aftershave," Ianto said without thinking. He flushed slightly as Jack grinned at him.

"Never wear any."

Ianto frowned. "You smell like that naturally?"

Jack winked. "Ready for another go?"

"I'm game if you are," sighed Ianto.

"Three, two, one!" Jack counted, then threw the door open, pulling Ianto inside with him. They ducked as the pterodon dived low over them again, but it pulled back up sharply. "Split up!" cried Jack.

They dashed to opposite sides of the warehouse. The pteranodon alighted on the ground directly between them, facing Jack.

"Hey, we're not going to harm you," Jack said soothingly. "But you can't stay here, okay? Come over to me, I'm sure Ianto has somewhere nice and big for you to fly around in."

 _WHAT?_ mouthed Ianto. Jack glared at him and shushed him with his finger on his lips. The pteranodon screeched again and took off, flapping over their heads like a great bat, buffeting about in the large empty building. Ianto ran across the floor to meet Jack in the middle. "What exactly is your plan?" he hissed.

"I'm going to be the decoy," said Jack.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" Ianto cried in exasperation.

"No! That's why I called you!" complained Jack.

"I'm not too experienced in this either!" countered Ianto. "But if you're the decoy, it'll rip you to shreds!"

"I've had dinosaurs for breakfast," Jack joked nervously.

"It isn't a dinosaur!"

"Even better! Fine, you be the decoy, then."

"Good, because I have a secret weapon."

"What's that?"

"Chocolate." Ianto pulled a chocolate bar out of his pocket. "Preferably dark. Dinosaurs love it."

"He isn't a dinosaur," reminded Jack.

"Shut up. Also, I think it's female." Ianto stepped out from the shadows into the center of the room. He handed Jack the syringe as he brushed past him. "Try to get it in the central nervous cortex. That's knock it out."

"I actually know where that is," Jack said, pleased with himself.

"Good for you." Ianto waved the chocolate bar in the air, tempting the pterodon back down. "Here, I've got your favorite, yeah?" It landed heavily on the floor, its back to Jack. Ianto threw the chocolate bar carefully. It skidded along the floor and stopped a few feet away from the creature. "Good for your serotonin levels," he coaxed. Jack started creeping up behind the pterodon quietly. "If you've got...serotonin levels," the Time Lord added as the pterodon snapped up the treat.

Suddenly, the pterodon whirled around and took off into flight. Probably trying to catch hold of it and get the syringe into it before it flew away completely, Jack grabbed the creature's feet and was swept along up into the air with it. "Whoa!" he screamed. "Ianto!"

Ianto stared in horror. If Jack fell from that height, he'd be seriously injured. Memories of Jack from Victorian London falling from the cloud flashed through his mind and he started running, trying to get underneath the flying reptile. Jack was hanging from only one of its legs now as it attempted to shake him off, irritated. The young man swung the arm holding the syringe over the pteranodon's back, jabbing the needle quickly into the back of its neck, right where the spinal cord met the skull.

The pteranodon let out a shriek, and Jack let go. He fell through the air and Ianto put his arms out to buffer his landing. Both of them toppled to the floor, Jack on top. "Sorry," said Jack breathlessly. Before either could move, Ianto looked up to see the pterodon dropping like a stone. It was huge, and was going to land right on top of them. Acting instinctively, both of them rolled together out of the way. They barely made it, but they were safe.

Now, Ianto was lying on top of Jack, their noses almost touching. Both were panting, and Jack's eyes sparkled with the rush of adrenaline. Ianto felt the overwhelming urge to kiss him, but resisted. Rolling off of the other man, he stood up. "I should go," he said.

"Aren't you going to take care of that?" Jack pointed to the pterodon.

"Yeah. I'll come back, I just need something to take it away in."

"Are you leaving completely?"

Ianto turned back towards him. "Why?"

"I was thinking. Wanna do this again sometime?" Jack suggested. "Probably not catching dinosaurs-"

"Pteranodons."

"-but who knows, maybe."

Smiling, Ianto went back over to the other man, who was still lying on the ground. He offered his hand, and Jack took it. The Time Lord helped him to his feet. "Maybe so. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. More than fine. That was a lot of fun, actually."

"You almost died," Ianto pointed out.

"Yeah, well, it's more adventure than I've ever had before," admitted Jack. "I kinda liked it. I've wanted to travel forever, but…"

"Why haven't you?" Ianto queried.

"I was going to, and then I kind of got stuck taking care of a couple of kids." Jack shrugged. Ianto remembered Francesca and Digby, the siblings that Jack had been tutoring in Victorian London. "I was just visiting some friends, and then one of their moms died. It was really sudden, but…"

"You felt like you had to stay with them, that it was the least you could do," realized Ianto.

"Yeah."

"You still want to travel, though?"

"I'm still going to!" Jack protested. Then he was downcast again. "I just don't know when."

Ianto changed the subject. "You seemed not to be too surprised to have a prehistoric Earth creature flying around a warehouse. Most people would completely freak out."

"I guess I just have an open mind," Jack answered. "Besides, if we can travel in time, we can do anything, right? I wanted to join the Time Agency, but I don't think they'd accept me. They usually don't accept applicants from the colonies."

"What if…" Ianto debated whether or not to offer. _You came this far, you're going through with it,_ he told himself. "Would you like to come travel with me?" he said finally. "I'm going pretty far away to return the pterodon to where it belongs. You could come, if you like."

Jack's eyes widened. "What, like now?"

A hint of a smile was playing around Ianto's lips. "Yeah."

"Wh-where?"

"Anywhere you like." Ianto leaned in closer, as if to share a secret. "I'm a time-traveller, Jack," he whispered. "I have a space-time ship that can take us anywhere in the universe at any time." He looked up and met Jack's eyes. They were shining with possibility. "You interested?"

Jack bit his lip. "Come back tomorrow. Ask me again then."

"Why?" Ianto asked, incredulous as to how anyone could even consider turning down that offer.

"Because, I might even say yes tomorrow." Jack started to leave. "After seven good?"

"I have a time machine, Jack, any time is good."

Jack grinned at him. "See you then." And he was gone.

Ianto followed slowly after to fetch the TARDIS and take the pterodon home. He decided to dub the creature Myfanwy, a Welsh name, and bring it back to its own time. Although he wondered how it had gotten into the 51st century, he didn't think too much of it. With the Time Agency based on a nearby planet, there was bound to be temporal anomalies around. After relocating the pteranodon and watching her fly off safely after the effects of the drug had worn off, Ianto stood alone at the center console.

"Alright, Jack Harkness. It's time to figure out what you are," he announced.

* * *

 _I am actually very proud of this chapter, as a mashup between Fragments: Ianto and The Bells of St John. See you next Tuesday for the next chapter! Please review, that keeps me writing. Love you! ~Clare_


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